Electrodes may be employed in coating technology for various processes and/or pretreatments in general. For example, a tubular target (for example a cathode tube) from which the coating material may be sputtered, that is to say atomized, may be employed in a sputtering process (also referred to as cathode evaporation or sputter deposition). In general, a tubular electrode (cathode and/or anode, which may also be referred to as a cathode tube) may rotate during processing. This may enable a process which has long-term stability, for example, such as a coating process having long-term stability, for example. In the case of magnetron sputtering (magnetic-field-supported cathode evaporation) a cathode tube which rotates during the sputtering process may be utilized, for example, wherein a magnet assembly is disposed within the cathode tube in order to influence plasma formation and thus inter alia the sputtering rate and/or other process parameters of the sputtering process. Furthermore, a magnetron assembly may also have a plurality of cathode tubes (tubular targets), for example in the case of a so-called dual tubular magnetron (a so-called RDM, a rotatable dual magnetron).